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Below are some game programming projects of mine. I'm thinking of eventually getting organized and providing some Windows and Linux binaries for some of these projects.

  • Lead and Vanquish, an up to 8 player on one screen, base building and 2D combat game. The working title is a riff on Command & Conquer, though the gameplay is closer to an old Atari Games title known as Rampart, which I have for the NES. Rampart is a very enjoyable game with arcade shooter and puzzle elements that I always thought would be fun to make playable with many more players on one screen at once, paying homage to old school console gaming of gathering around one display for in-person, intense competition, instead of remote gaming on your own display of more modern gaming. Lead and Vanquish is a project I intensely worked on in May and early June of 2024, though it's currently unfinished. It certainly needs some gameplay refinements. The latest build number is 86, consisting of 4,134 lines of C. Unlike all my other projects, I decided to try documenting development time of this project in detail. Development time currently sits at around 59 hours. Though in hindsight, another metric I should have tracked was how many cans of Rockstar Zero I crushed working on it. Here's some development testing footage of the game. It's also the first live action game I've made with Allegro to use gamepads instead of the keyboard. I purchased these knock-off SNES USB PC gamepads for this project, along with these USB hub adapter cables, to allow for connecting 8 controllers. I've also had great luck with these wireless controllers, even using them to make a wireless NES Advantage and custom-built wireless arcade controller, though I went with wired controllers for this project to save a few bucks.
  • Trivia Game, an up to 4 player multiple choice trivia game, written in C using Allegro. Players wager amounts based on the random topic selected. Topics are stored as text files are are meant to be read off a USB flash drive plugged into the TV-connected computer set-up for this game. In that respect, it's meant to be a console-like, set-top game that connects to a TV. It uses FLite to read questions to players. I tasked ChatGPT to create thousands of trivia questions on a vast array of topics, having it also create intelligent incorrect answers and shuffle the order the multiple choice answers appear. It's kind of a mix of Jeopardy! for the wagering and question subject aspect, and Who Wants to be a Millionaire for the multiple choice aspect. Here's a demo video of some gameplay, from July 2023.
  • Block Battle, a falling block game I made, written in C using Allegro and ENet. It has various easy to crazy blocks from 1x1 to 5x5. It features single player and client/server multiplayer LAN play.
  • Delivery Mayhem, a maze game I made, written in C using Allegro, where you have to pick-up pizzas and deliver them to protestors at the capitol buildings before thugs get to you. Inspired by the Wisconsin Uprising of 2010. I actually built an arcade of this game, completely from scratch, featuring a working coin mech. The album for that project is here.
  • Nothing but Net '82, a 2-on-2 basketball game featuring graphics that look 1982-esque, written in C using Allegro. Though it has a fun 2D motion projectile physics engine. You can even create your own players with various skill levels. I tried implimenting basic computer players, though that's still a work in progress and there hasn't been much progress in a while. Here's a demo video of some of the game mechanics, from the July of 2013.
  • Tanks and Turrets, simple 2D tank shoot 'em up with up to 4 player action against computer players. It's written in C using Allegro. It's graphics are primative geometry. There are power-ups for tank speed, shot speed, and multiple shots. Basic, but fun. I originally wrote it as a simple game for my homebrew game console for 4 player on the same screen gameplay fun. Here's a demo video of some gameplay, from July 2016.
  • Brick Buster, a game I made based on Mozilla's 2D Breakout game programming tutorial
  • Maze Runner, a very simple JavaScript game where you, the green square, race against the clock to reach the blue square in random generated mazes, while also avoiding contact with the red squares. You use arrow keys to move and [Ctrl] to break through walls as needed, though doing so costs points.

Below are some game programming resources and other links.

I'll probably be gathering my games and posting links for download as freeware. Wait, make that beerware. If you enjoy them enough to buy me a beer I'd take that! I like that concept. They aren't good enough to sell, but I still worked hard on them.

Created by Mike Young on March 11, 2022. Last updated on June 30, 2024.

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